camus

In the midst of studying for a sermon on the attributes of God I ran across an essay by Albert Camus titled "The Unbeliever". Camus added to a philosophy called absurdism, which opposed nihilism, but to no distinct end. The soul of Camus had longing and that gave him a small boat to ride above the sea of nothingness that was nihilism. He was certain that there was meaning, but could give it no specific name. He, like the woman at the well, only knew that they did not have the ability to personally draw eternal water themselves. Camus wrote this as a speech to present to a group of monks that asked him if he would tell them what, according to his view, Christians should do or do differently. Here is part of that response:

“What the world expects of Christians is that Christians should speak out, loud and clear, and that they should voice their condemnation in such a way that never a doubt, never the slightest doubt, could rise in the heart of the simplest man. That they should get away from abstraction and confront the blood-stained face history has taken on today. The grouping we need is a grouping of men resolved to speak out clearly and to pay up personally. When a Spanish bishop blesses political execution, he ceases to be a bishop or a Christian or even a man; he is a dog just like the one who, backed by an ideology, orders that executions without doing the dirty work himself. We are still waiting, and I am waiting, for a group of all those who refuse to be dogs and are resolved to pay the price that must be paid so that man can be something more than a dog.”

Hold out the hope you have. Speak in love and speak loudly.